Unexpected Visitors
by rockwithpeace13
Summary: Sherlock/Doctor Who first encounter. Sherlock stumbles upon Ten and Rose in the Tardis and a very wintry fun ensues.
1. Unexpected Visitors

**Hello all. Just a random story I cooked up yesterday while in bed. Always wanted to write Wholock first encounters :) Enjoy!**

* * *

"So, where we going this time, Doctor?" Rose asked.

The Doctor looked up from the console.

"No idea. Maybe somewhere far away, farther than we've ever gone before, to a time untouched by mankind, to a time far beyond the reaches of time and space..." He was starting to have a dreamy look on his face.

Rose looked at the Doctor, a smile emerging on her face.

"Have you been watching the Discovery Channel again?"

The Doctor scratched his head, looking entirely unapologetic.

"Yeah, sorry. But you'd have to say I'd make a brilliant host on that channel!"

The Doctor spun a wheel and twisted a dial, pushing down a lever with his outstretched foot while whistling a tune at the same time. Rose had always marvelled at how he managed to actually drive the thing without killing himself. The Doctor seemed to have heard Rose's thoughts, and winked at her.

The Tardis hummed to life, and they were off.

* * *

Rose was jolted awake from a particularly nice daydream she had involving hot chocolate and cookies when the Tardis crash landed.

It wasn't a very bad crash, considering that she was still intact on the couch and the Doctor wasn't lying sprawled on the floor. But still a violent crash, that somehow felt...wrong.

"What have you done again?"

The Doctor looked at Rose, his brown eyes wide with shock. His mouth opened and shut, speech temporarily disabled.

"It's not my fault! And I don't know… We were supposed to be travelling way forward in time and space, but it appears we're on planet Earth again…" the Doctor busied himself with removing a part of the flooring, exposing the many wires connecting to the Tardis console. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and started sonicing away, a frown etched into his face. Rose realised he was wearing his glasses again, and stifled a laugh. This was going to be a long wait.

* * *

Suddenly, the peaceful hum of the Tardis was broken by the sound of the doors being flung open rather violently, from which two figures tumbled in, who then proceeded to slam the doors behind them, panting heavily.

The Doctor whirled around, shocked.

"What?!"

"Do you think we lost them?" the shorter, blonde man gasped. He seemed totally oblivious to his new surroundings.

"Yes." the taller man managed. He had curly, jet black hair, which was matched well with a thick woollen coat; it looked a little like the Doctor's; all flappy and dramatic.

Rose looked on, mouth agape with surprise. She realised the Doctor had a similar expression on and closed her mouth immediately.

The tall mystery man was standing upright now, his startling blue eyes taking in the Tardis. He glanced at Rose and the Doctor, his gaze electrifying.

Suddenly, he spoke in a surprisingly deep voice.

"What are you doing here on Earth?" he then looked slightly embarrassed, as if he'd only just realised how absurd the question sounded. The blonde man only looked tired. And annoyed.

"Sherlock, what are you babbling about now?" he said, before his eyes finally began to start comprehending what he was seeing. His jaw practically dropped.

"Where are we?"

"A good question. I'd reckon, some sort of ...time...vehicle?" the man cocked his head, "this blue box was never in that alley before; I should know. The inside of the box is significantly larger. Hence a… cloaking device that disguises its true size. Box's design was of 18th century origin. Not something you would expect in this time and age. This box probably would have had the perfect disguise back then, but not now. Travels in time then. No existing country has such high level of technology yet. Mycroft would have known; and by extension, I would have known too. So technology is either newly discovered or not possessed by humans in the first place. A look at the central console would show that there is an unidentifiable circular language present in the screens and on pieces of paper stuck on them. Alien language? Most probable, considering that my other theories have already been proven wrong by the structure of this place and the condition of the equipment. Conclusion, the box is not just a box, but is of alien technology, and travels in time. Since it's of alien origin, probably travels in space too."

The man ended off abruptly, his face flushed from the exertion from his run into the Tardis and excitement of this new mystery.

The Doctor stared at the man, shock written all over his face.

"What?!" the Doctor sounded so silly Rose had to poke the Doctor in the ribs. He squirmed and blinked quickly to focus.

"I cannot believe you just did that!" he finally spluttered.

"Neither can I." The man looked quite surprised himself.

Rose had a queer feeling. Only one person she knew of could get all that in a minute, and he technically doesn't exist in real life. But the blonde man did just call out his name.

"Sherlock... Holmes?"

The man nodded politely to her.

"One and only." He gestured to the gaping man beside him.

"This is Dr John Watson, my blogger." he said, indicating the man, who nodded awkwardly.

Rose looked at the two new arrivals. She suddenly had a pretty good feeling that today was going to be a very interesting day indeed.

* * *

**Not sure if I want to continue with this story... Please comment! :)**


	2. Let it Snow

**Enjoy**.

* * *

Rose sat on the Tardis railings, her feet swinging freely as she watched the Doctor fumble through a bag of tools, all the while muttering to himself.

"There must be something wrong with her. The Tardis doesn't just let... _Humans_ in! Not even if it's Sherlock Holmes and John Watson!" the Doctor nearly spluttered. Sherlock sniffed and got off the Tardis chair he's been perching on.

"Sherlock, don't touch anything. You know what happens when you get curious." John sighed. He had sat down on the floor of the Tardis out of shock and surprise earlier, and have not moved since. He glanced over at Rose and shot her an apologetic smile. Rose grinned shyly, waving a hand.

"You okay down there?" John grabbed a railing and pulled himself up. He walked somewhat unsteadily towards Rose, running a hand through his hair and blowing air through his teeth.

"Honestly? I really don't know. Okay, I guess," he said, ending rather awkwardly. Rose persisted.

"So... Go on many adventures with the great Sherlock Holmes?" John grinned.

"I wouldn't call them adventures, per se. More like... Constantly being woken up at 2 in the morning to chase down criminals in the freezing cold," the look of relief on John's face was apparent as he watched Rose laugh.

"Don't even try, John. She's taken already." Sherlock's voice cut through the noise with ease. He was bent over the Tardis console, pocket magnifying glass in hand as he flew about the room, examining everything with minute precision, completely oblivious to the impact of his words. John spluttered

"I wasn't trying to... It's just a normal... She..." John trailed off as Rose laughed at the incredulity of the situation.

"It's alright, Dr. Watson. You know, I always had the impression that you were the lady killer in the books," she suppressed another laugh as she saw John blush.

"Just call me John. Books? I just write a blog. Are we really getting that popular?"

"Not yet, I'm afraid. You two aren't even supposed to exist, technically, unless we've just crossed universes, _again_..." the Doctor murmured out loud, holding a torch to a very annoyed Sherlock's face.

"Oh, stop bothering our guests, Doctor. Just admit that the Tardis likes them, alright? I mean, look at them! They're the _real deal_!" Rose said, beaming. The Doctor frowned and tossed the torch aside.

"Fine. Maybe the Tardis likes them, maybe not. There's just too much going on here that's all wrong. First of all," he whirled dramatically to face the two arrivals, "how do you exist?"

Silence filled the room. Rose bit her lip.

"Are you suggesting," Sherlock said slowly, his eyes darting about the Doctor's face, "that we only exist in books, but not in reality?" The Doctor scratched his head.

"Yeah, basically that. You're really clever aren't you? I like you! Well, I did always enjoy Arthur's books. Even so, I doubt if even you'd know what happened," the Doctor thought for a while, "I guess we'll put this problem on hold. Here's a far more important, and possibly easier question to answer: What were you running away from?" Sherlock shrugged.

"Plastic assailants." the Doctor blinked.

"Okay, maybe not so easy question. John, care to explain?

"Well, we were investigating a series of thefts involving toys and mannequins, which somehow led us to a disused factory that turned out to be less disused than we thought. Someone was manufacturing loads of toys in it. To be more specific, duplicates of the stolen toys. The weirdest part was the people working in it," John paused, "they seem to be made of plastic."

Rose could feel a sinking feeling as she thought of the first aliens she had encountered. John saw Rose's face and continued.

"I'm serious! Sherlock pulled the whole head off one of them, and I'm telling you, that was the funniest face I've ever seen," John quickly stopped as he saw Sherlock's face turn murderous.

"Autons? What are _Autons_ doing back here?" Sherlock straightened at the Doctor's reaction.

"Are they aliens as well?" the Doctor nodded. He tapped out a series of commands at the Tardis console

"They're pretty close to our location. Were they shooting?" John nodded.

"That's not good. The Tardis doesn't seem to be in good enough shape to deal with them. They do seem to be moving awfully slow, though..." the Doctor trailed off, noticing Sherlock practically glueing himself to the Doctor's back as he stared at the screen

"Can't you just... Fly us away?" Sherlock asked.

"Don't think that's such a good idea. See what happened last time? We bring legendary characters to life!"

"Legendary?" John snorted.

"I'll do check outside." Rose ran to the doors and flung them open.

Two Autons emerged, standing right in front of the Tardis, their plastic hands opened to reveal gun barrels.

"Okay, not good." Rose quickly shut the doors, running as fast as she could back to the Doctor

"Fly us! Quickly!" she yelled.

Not wasting another second, the Doctor pushed down on the lever and had just had enough time to flip a switch before they all fell to the floor, the Tardis whirling like a tea cup ride.

"Is this how you two normally travel? Because it's not at all how I imagined space travel to be!" John yelled to Rose.

"Hold on! I've got this!" the Doctor scrambled to his feet, madly operating the Tardis. Rose threw the hammer to him, which he gladly used.

Eventually the Tardis stopped shaking, landing surprisingly with a soft thud.

"That was close." Rose gasped. Sherlock tried to catch his breath long enough to speak properly

"Where are we?" the Doctor reached over for a screen.

"Hang on. I've set coordinates for Cardiff, but we seemed to have landed somewhere really off. Temperature readings are really really low..."

"If it helps," John spoke up, "those... Autons..." Everyone looked at John.

"Those Autons were dressed in Santa suits."

"Well then I suppose it's Merry Christmas then," Rose said. She was standing at the open doorway. It was snowing, and a freezing gust of wind blew into the Tardis, making John and Rose shiver. The Doctor and Sherlock didn't even flinch. They had their coats on.

The Doctor laughed. He was still clutching the screen, which was beeping incessantly.

"Guess what, guys; we're at the North Pole!"

"This is ridiculous." Sherlock mumbled.

* * *

**So, I've decided to turn this thing into a Christmas special. Still don't quite like the idea of it, so please review and tell me of you like it or not. Just a friendly note, I may not finish this by Christmas Day, but what the heck; it's still gonna feel like it.**


	3. Sleigh Ride

**Here's the next chapter of our Christmas Special. Enjoy and review!**

* * *

"Oh, my, god!"

"Rose, you've been saying that for the past five minutes. Hurry up and find a coat before Sherlock wanders off too far!"

"Sorry. But I just can't help it! What if we meet Santa?"

"Please. You're never this excited when I bring you to other places."

"That's not true! What about the time it drizzled chocolate?"

"...Fair enough."

Rose finally emerged from the Tardis, wearing a white fur coat, complete with mittens and ear muffs. She looked rather like an oversized kitten, which the Doctor promptly told her. Rose grinned.

"Thought you hated cats."

"Well, not this one, apparently."

John cleared his throat. He too had found comfortable winter clothing in the Tardis, and was clad in a thick grey coat and gloves.

"Sorry; just wondering if it's safe for Sherlock to be doing that."

"Doing what?"

John pointed some twenty feet away, where Sherlock's prominent figure was hunched down against the freezing wind, prodding what seems to be a metal sleigh, with metal poles rising from the centre of it. There were messy ropes all over it, which looked as though they once formed some sort of rigging. The Doctor squinted.

"Can't tell from here, though I'd reckon that's what I might do too. Let's go take a look, shall we?"

Before anyone could take another step, a loud _click_ could be heard from the sleigh, followed by audible mechanical humming. Sherlock stood up and turned towards the trio, a hand pointing at the sleigh.

"Some sort of vehicle. Looks fairly new; there's footprints leading away from he-" he cut short when without warning, the sleigh levitated into the air. John saw with dismay as a stray loop of rope clung stubbornly to Sherlock's foot and tightened. Their eyes locked, and John could clearly see Sherlock's eyes widen first with slight surprise, then shock as he realized what was going to happen.

The sleigh shot forward, yanking the detective clean off his feet. Sherlock flailed in the air for a split second, before landing on his back in the thankfully soft snow. He clawed at the snow hopelessly as he was being dragged further and further away from John and the others.

The Doctor gaped at the sight. He turned to Rose and John, speechless.

"Run!" they all said at the same time.

* * *

Sherlock frankly wasn't sure how to react when he felt the rough rope tighten around his ankle. (worn rope, signs of sailor knots, though no signs of natural wear and tear associated with sea travel. Used by person with navel experience, though has not been in the water for a long time) He knew John could tell that he was in for a rough ride; his look of horror looked unfortunately familiar, due to his many close shaves with the stove. So when the sleigh jerked off, it was all he could do to force himself to relax and let his body lift into the air.

That split second felt oh so long. Sherlock's instincts kicked in and his hyped-up body orientated itself such that when he lands, his hands will cushion the most of the fall, which barely even registers as the rope jerked his left foot forward, dragging Sherlock through the ice-cold snow. Breathing deeply, Sherlock tried to access his situation.

_Metal sleigh appear to be moving on automatic, direction unchanged. Previous owner has set in safety coordinates, in case of emergency, which was obviously the red button Sherlock had pressed. Sleigh appears to be made for seafaring means, but somehow _modified_ to levitate. Alien?_

No matter what Sherlock could deduce from his current situation, he still doesn't know if his destination would forebear danger or not. Sherlock could hear John and the Doctor yelling his name vaguely; he hoped they could run faster and get him out of this mess sooner rather than later.

* * *

"This is not good. This is very bad, extremely not good," the Doctor muttered under his breath as he scrambled to get his sonic screwdriver. John was way ahead of them, yelling Sherlock's name periodically.

There was not a rock or hill in sight, so the sleigh fortunately or unfortunately won't stop forcibly. The Doctor finally got out his sonic screwdriver, and struggled to aim the thing at the rope.

"Come on, come one!" At this rate, the Doctor simply could not get a constant aim on the rope on Sherlock's foot. He tried aiming it at the metal sleigh instead.

"Are you kidding me? _Deadlocked_?" Rose turned at the Doctor's groan. She was running beside him, and certainly didn't look too happy at the comment.

"What are we gonna do now?" she cried.

"Just... keep Sherlock within our view! He must've activated some sort of homing beacon or emergency routing system, so the sleigh's bringing him back to wherever it came from!"

"And where is that?"

"Well-" the Doctor cut short, an expression of absolute shock on his face as he stared forward. Rose turned to look at what surprised him.

"What is it? I don't see anything!"

"That's because you don't believe, Rose."

* * *

Sherlock tried straining to sit up again. This time, he was successful long enough to grasp one end of the rope and hang on. He shook his head and spat out snow, trying to maintain his balance as the sleigh seemed to speed up. He tugged at the rope desperately, hoping it would loosen, but to no avail. He then took a deep breath and lunged for the back of the sleigh, to disastrous results.

Sherlock managed to grab a loose rope hanging from the sleigh and held on, his right foot tied up and the other suspended in the air, resulting in a kind of makeshift skiing posture. Sherlock hung on for a moment longer, until he caught his breath long enough to pull on the rope he was holding on to.

Inch by inch, Sherlock grew closer and closer to the sleigh until finally he pulled himself into the sleigh, his right foot still twisted out. Panting, he sat up and began to untie himself, when he heard shouting. Looking up, he realized John and the rest are still behind him. The Doctor was gesturing wildly at him, but what was he saying?

"Hold on!"

Sherlock rolled his eyes and ignored the Doctor. But the Doctor kept yelling.

"Sherlock, hold on! You are going to-" Sherlock frowned. What was that?

"Sherlock! You are going to CRASH!"

Without warning, the whole sleigh jerked to a sudden halt as it crashed. Sherlock, finally free of his bounds, flew straight past the metal poles and into the front end of the sleigh. The impact of the crash nearly knocked Sherlock into unconsciousness, but he gritted his teeth and stayed still until the swaying stopped and his vision cleared. He shook his head and stood up slowly, assessing his injuries.

Sore right foot, bruised back, minor cuts. Other than that, he was alright. He could already see the others closing in on him, so he turned to see the cause of his sudden stop.

* * *

John simply didn't understand. What the hell just happened? First thing Sherlock was moving in the sleigh, and the next moment he wasn't. He thought he saw a giant flash of metal when the sleigh came into contact with...whatever it was, but all he could see now was-

"Nothing?" Sherlock's voice was filled with incredulity.

There was absolutely nothing in front of the sleigh. Yet it did crash into something, but what? John saw the Doctor walked past the sleigh, to the front of it. He held up his metal rod thing and scanned the air. He was muttering angrily to himself again.

"I should have expected this. All the signs pointed to this but did I see them? No! So thick, absolutely thick..."

"Doctor, what is this?" Rose asked. The Doctor seemed to have found something and held that metal device to his ear. He grinned at Rose. John wondered why the Doctor was so fond of that piece of equipment when it obviously didn't work on Sherlock.

With a flourish, the Doctor clicked. John and Rose gasped.

The air in front of them flickered and grew fuzzy as it slowly melted and morphed to reveal a gigantic metallic structure. It had a confusing shape, pointed at one end and rounded at the other, stretching on for miles. It was glittering and buzzing with a strange energy, patches of melting ice still clinging onto its surface. Rose could just about make out the giant letters printed on its side.

"You've got to be kidding me," she breathed. The Doctor's grin only grew bigger.

"Rose, John, _Sherlock_, meet Santa."

* * *

**Please review :)**


	4. Silent Night

**Whew, that was tiring. Here's the new chapter, and I hope you enjoy it! :)**

* * *

Silence filled the air. The Doctor was beginning to think he had probably gone too far and the rest have finally concluded he was nuts when John turned to face the Doctor, his expression one of fury and rage.

"This is _it_, Mister! I have been running all over London, to be chased by idiots in plastic, into some..._time traveling space ship_ with its alien and companion. Now Sherlock gets dragged halfway across the North Pole, smack into some invisible metal... _thing_ that you call _Santa_? And what is up with that thing you keep scanning things with? Didn't even do Sherlock much good, so I don't see how any of this has got to do with us, so unless I hear a valid explanation, we're leaving!"

The Doctor let out a hurt gasp. His mouth opened and closed, but not a word came out of it. Rose stood at the side, looking at the both of them, not sure whether to be amused at the Doctor's expression or afraid. John stood fuming, his eyes wide open.

"Well?" he said.

"Well, first of all," the Doctor tried, "this is a _sonic screwdriver._ It happens to be very very good, it's just that Sherlock was moving far too quickly for me to burn through that rope, and the sleigh was deadlocked! Wasn't my fault, it wasn't like that the last time..." John shook his head, trying very hard not to burst into a long string of expletives. He breathed deeply a couple of times, and tried again.

"What, is this?" he gestured to the large monstrosity in front of all of them. The Doctor licked his lips nervously.

"Like I said, that's Santa."

"I think the precise question would be, what does Santa stand for." Sherlock said. He had dismounted the sleigh and was now touching the metal exterior. Electricity sparked from the walls to his gloved hand, but it appeared not to affect Sherlock at all. The Doctor smiled a little and relaxed.

"Good one! Well Santa's... Not exactly the real deal, although I would expect him to be somewhere close by..."

"You mean he exists?" Rose asked excitedly. The Doctor nodded.

"Sure he does! Don't you remember the red bike you got when you were twelve?"

"Yeah, but I didn't think you were serious... Have you met him?" The Doctor nodded proudly.

"Yes I have, and I think I would like to have a word with him; his sleigh seems very out of shape." The Doctor turned to face Sherlock and John.

"This is SANTA. It stands for Space ANd Time Autobot. The 'A' and 'N' all comes from the 'And', by the way, anyway," he quickly continued, seeing Sherlock sigh with exasperation," this is Santa's sleigh. More or less."

"...He named his sleigh...after himself?" John finally says. The Doctor looked at him.

"Well, he's kind of an egotistical person; you'll be one if everyone sings about you and writes you fanmail every Christmas," the Doctor scratched his head, "besides it's easier to call it that since you've got to memorize every child's name in the whole galaxy." Rose gaped happily at the Doctor.

"No I'm just kidding, the sleigh does it for him. It's totally automated, the real Santa just maintains it and drives it about."

Sherlock was nodding. He started to speak.

"Santa is an intergalactic philanthropist who uses his machine to generate gifts for all to receive. This metal sleigh which I just traveled on is of human make. However, it is obviously in the employment of Santa Sleigh, so Santa Sleigh uses Earth materials to complete its work. It has been modified to levitate in the air, hence leaving no tracks as it navigates the Earth, collecting materials to create toys for children all over the world. The fact that we couldn't see the Santa Sleigh until the Doctor did his...thing indicates a presence of a cloaking shield designed to hide it from view, as it works- but this doesn't make any sense!" Sherlock grunted, shaking his hair with his hands in frustration. The Doctor grinned.

"You really are clever, aren't you? Tell me, why doesn't this make sense?" Sherlock rolled his eyes, as though speaking to a six year old.

"This is a _Space and Time Autobot_. If this guy really is going to deliver presents to the whole world in _one night_, he would have been able to manipulate Time itself such that he could manufacture all of the gifts, deliver them all and leave for another planet without even being seen! What's the point of a cloaking shield? What is it doing _defrosting_ here in the North Pole? And most importantly, what has it got to do with plastic mannequins attacking people on the streets?" Sherlock ended off throwing his arms in the air in frustration. The Doctor simply clapped his hands in admiration.

"Couldn't be put better myself. Well, let's go ask the man himself, shall we?" he turned and used his sonic screwdriver on the giant sleigh. A faint creaking sound could be heard from deep within the Santa Sleigh, and suddenly the metal sleigh which Sherlock previously was tied to started to vibrate.

"Everybody get on board!" the Doctor hurried the rest into the sleigh. Just as he leapt on, the sleigh started to float upwards.

"Are we going in?" asked Rose.

"Oh yes!" the Doctor replied, grinning happily.

A panel slid noiselessly open, and the sleigh levitated in, straight into Santa's Sleigh.

* * *

When John woke up that morning, he fully expected the usual morning; Sherlock droning away on his violin, complaining about idiots and Anderson. Either that or running through London on a new bizarre case Lestrade assigned them. He had not in his wildest dreams imagined aliens, time travel, or Santa Claus, at that. So he forgave himself for being just a tad bit rude to the time travelling alien. That Doctor guy even looked kind of used to his reaction, that was until he insulted his sonic screwdriver.

John wasn't surprised at Sherlock's reaction, though. Even after being dragged by a levitating sleigh, through miles of snow did little to dampen that light in his eyes. John could see it now, that look Sherlock gets when he's onto something interesting, something much higher than a seven. John sighed and tried to make himself comfortable in the sleigh. That chase had exhausted him, both physically and mentally. Watching Sherlock tethered to the rope was absolutely terrifying, although such instances weren't exactly uncommon too.

John could see that the metal sleigh was moving deeper and deeper through the metallic caverns that made up the inside of the Santa Sleigh. He could just about make out a faint clanging and wondered just what they were getting themselves into. He realized the Doctor was talking again and tried to concentrate on the words.

"Santa's an old friend of mine. Met him one cold day on a distant planet, when my Tardis was malfunctioning. His ship had broke down again, and we had a chance to have a nice long chat. Turns out his ship could freeze Time long enough for him to do his Christmas thing, but it's so old it frequently breaks down. So...I offered to help."

"You built this for him?" John asked. The Doctor looked embarrassed.

"Well, I did help him a bit, but you'd be surprised at how fast he caught on. Soon enough he was dashing about in his giant Sleigh, bringing joy to all on Christmas Day! Well, that was after the Converter started to work."

"The Converter?"

"_Yeah_, how else do you think the Sleigh runs?"

"Let me guess, the belief and hope of all the little children in the whole world," John muttered sarcastically. Surprisingly the Doctor looked up at him, smiling.

"Not bad John! You're close; all that deductions by Sherlock must've rubbed off on you." the Doctor continued happily, much to the exasperation of John.

"The Converter was Santa's brain child. He reasoned that since he's already built up quite the reputation, he could tap into the beliefs of all the children that he was real. The Converter was a machine that uses loads of algorithms to tap into the psychic frequencies emitting from Earth, tune into all that positive belief and boom! You've got power!" the Doctor beamed at his seated audience, waiting for his applause. Rose cleared her throat.

"Doctor, don't you think that sounds a little too... Magical?" the Doctor's smile faded.

"What do you mean by that? It makes total sense! How else do you think the Santa Sleigh was hidden from all of you? Simple perception filter, boosted by the Converter, and the entire Sleigh is hidden from view from the rest of the world!" A smile was creeping up Rose's face already. She nodded.

"So the only reason why the rest of us didn't see the Santa Sleigh was because we didn't _believe_?" the Doctor laughed.

"Spot on, Rose! I've altered the filter so that we could see it too. Now it looks as though we're approaching Santa Claus HQ..."

The sleigh was approaching a pair of humongous oaken doors, which creaked open as soon as they were near. "Wow," breathed Rose.

There was hardly any other word to describe what lay before them. The room was enormous, almost as though made for giants. Wooden rafters hung high above, stray bits of tinsel hanging from them. Strange and fantastic toys lay scattered on the carpeted floor, some still half-complete. Two cushioned chairs were placed strategically facing a homely fireplace, a small fire burning within. And on the oaken mantlepiece were a series of reindeer, seemingly carved from the wood itself.

Rose couldn't stop grinning at the sight. Here they were finally, in Santa's home! She turned to face the others, and was surprised to see John having an almost similar expression on his face. His mouth was agape, and his eyes were filled with wonder. Just at that moment, the sleigh they were on slowed down to a stop.

"This is it, I'm afraid. It's time to see what Santa's been up to." the Doctor said. As they dismounted, the Doctor stood back to let the others enjoy.

Rose stooped to pick up a toy. It was a carved horse. She placed it on the floor and pressed a button on its back. There was a whirring sound and the horse started to move, its wooden legs moving like a real one. She giggled with delight.

John was watching the whole room. His mouth was still open, and Sherlock stood beside him, watching him carefully.

"Are you okay, John?" he said. John turned and nodded distractedly.

"Yeah, why?" Sherlock shook his head awkwardly.

"Just asking."

The Doctor smiled. He walked forward to the mantelpiece, caressing the reindeer. Sherlock came up to the Doctor.

"You like to do this a lot, don't you?" the Doctor turned to face him.

"Do what?" Sherlock shrugged.

"Make people happy."

There was a pause.

"Yes. Why?"

"You're someone with a_ time machine_. There can be so much that one can do with that, yet you choose to travel with a human and bring her to places she would enjoy. A human, no less! There must've been something you've done in the past to make you need to constantly help others."

"What's so bad about that?"

"I've seen your Tardis, Doctor. It's clearly made to be operated by many of your kind. Yet you are alone, traveling with a human. What happened to them?"

The Doctor was silent. He looked hard at Sherlock.

"They're all gone."

He pushed down on a reindeer, and it shifted deep into the mantelpiece. Rose and John heard it and looked up.

A whirring sound echoed all around them, followed by a series of loud clicks. The fire whooshed off, and the entire wall rotated to reveal a secondary chamber. This one was stone-lined, rows of tables built into the hard floor. There were tools lying on several of them, chunks of metal and wood and plastic lying scattered on all of them. The Doctor strode forward, until they reached an iron door. He turned dramatically to face them.

"Beyond this door is where Santa does his magic. It's his HQ, the place where he decides who's naughty, and who's nice. Are you ready to meet _him_?"

"Bring it on!"

The Doctor smiled and turned the handle.

* * *

The Doctor wasn't sure when it all went wrong. Was it the charred screens? The broken, smoked viewport? The twisted bits of metal that once resembled switches? Or was it the broken skeleton that lay in the command chair, still decked out in a Santa suit?

"Yeah, definitely the skeleton," muttered the Doctor as Rose screamed.

"Santa's _dead_?"

* * *

**There we go! I hope you enjoy this, because when I post this, it's just about 3 hours to D-day. So review away and make this girl's day!**


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